Starting late last week, I have now regularly seen 2-3 swifts flying
together on the west side of Olympia, where Percival St. meets the
Garfield nature trail. For example, on last Friday evening 2 swifts were
flying in very close formation, later joined by a third bird. I wonder
if some of the knocked off top trees in the area now look like good
homes?

Just down the block the scrub jays are still very active. As Jon
Anderson (I think) reported earlier, they seem to be pretty active in
this area and I think the center of the activity is about the 300 block
of N. Percival. I still haven't found a nest, but I'll keep looking.

On another note, I very much enjoyed Saturday's second Annual Prairie
Celebration. We took our two children to the kid's walk at Glacier
Heritage Area near Mima Mounds. After earlier comments about the lack of
meadowlarks it was fun to see and hear a very vocal male
perchingprominantly on ashort fir, then skulking off in the grass. Apair
of red-tailed hawks joined in a nice soaring display. The flowers were
spectacular, with balsom root, violets, camas and death
camas all in fine flower. Our children also loved the butterflies, with
checkerspots and blues being caught for close observation and then
released, along with stink bugs and crab spiders. Many thanks for the local
organizations (Thurston county,
Nature conservancy, Black Hills Aud., Friends of Puget Prairies) for a
fine morning. If you have a chance, check out these opportunities next year.

As an aside, I was surprised by my almost-five year old. Joshua now has
his own bird spotters guide and has decided he wants to check off birds
he has seen. After we went home and he was going through telling me what
he had seen, he spontaneously told me he wasn't going to check off
Western Meadowlark, because he "didn't really see it good enough." It
looks like I may be stuck with a listing purist!

Jim Neitzel
The Evergreen State College